


Trustfall

by HappyLeech



Series: Trustfall Expanded Universe [2]
Category: Silent Hill (Video Game Series), Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Ace Alana Maxwell, Background Character Death, Daniel is Heather, Gen, People who misgender Daniel get shot or will get shot, Post-Silent Hill 3, Pre-Wolf 359, Silent Hill 3, Silent Hill Typical Gore, Silent Hill Typical Violence, Trans Daniel Jacobi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:40:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25600741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyLeech/pseuds/HappyLeech
Summary: A tech thief in Maine means that Daniel Jacobi is forced to return to a town he thought he'd left behind for good.
Relationships: Daniel Jacobi & Alana Maxwell
Series: Trustfall Expanded Universe [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1855471
Kudos: 3





	Trustfall

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings for this chapter: Daniel is briefly misgendered, talk of Daniel being pregnant at the end of the chapter

“—and long story short, that was when they asked me not to set foot in any more of their Nebraska stores.”

Daniel was sulking in the backseat of the sensible rental car Kepler was driving, and didn’t join Alana’s polite laughter at his anecdote, one of _many_ they’d had to listen to during the trip from Canaveral to Maine. Normally, he would argue that he wasn’t sulking. He was simply planning his next move, or thinking about their upcoming mission, or busy with something else. This time he was _one hundred percent_ sulking and he didn't care who knew.

Alana turned in her seat, ignoring Kepler’s grumbling about road safety, and waved the travel brochure at Daniel. “They have their _strip club_ advertised in here. How big is this town again?”

“I don’t know,” he snarked back at her. “You’re the one with the info.”

She just laughed. “Hey, do you hate this place because the ducks got you here?” Daniel shot her the stink eye, and she practically cackled. “It is! Is there a petting zoo in the theme park? Or did a flock of them push you into the lake?”

“Fuck off, Maxwell,” he snapped, the same time a lance of pain moved through his abdomen. Damn car-trip cramps.

Kepler raised an eyebrow as he looked at him with the rearview mirror. “Language, Mister Jacobi.”

“Yes, Sir,” Daniel gritted out, sinking back into the seat.

“It’s just a junky tourist town, Daniel,” Alana said, tossing him the brochure. “And it’s just an in and out job, so it’s not like we’ll be there long.”

“No more than twenty-four hours by my best guess, so long as everyone pulls their weight,” Kepler said. Daniel snorted. “Something you wanted to add, Mister Jacobi?”

“Nothing in this town is quick or easy,” he muttered, watching as they reached the turn-off. A few minutes more, and Kepler pulled over at a rest stop.

"Closed for construction?" Kepler said, clicking his tongue in disapproval. "I suppose we're going the long way around."

Daniel's heart sunk. They were already trapped. He didn't bother turning, he already knew the fog was rolling in.

"Our target is at Jack's Inn," Alana said, stretching.

"I want us as light as possible," Kepler added. "We don't need to draw any undue attention. Sidearms only, no armour."

"No," Daniel snapped. "Isn't it _protocol_ to be armoured up, _Sir_?"

Kepler's face went carefully blank. "We can discuss your attitude once we're finished here," he said, voice promising punishment, and Alana blanched, looking between Kepler and Daniel. 

That was fine. He would take any reprimand and give up any hope of his stupid crush being reciprocated in exchange for protection _anyday_.

"You should wear vests too," he suggested, and Kepler scoffed.

"Why the stickler for protocol now, Mister Jacobi?" he asked, adjusting his concealed holster. "If I remember correctly, you said it was a waste of time on the Venice mission."

"Venice and Silent Hill aren't the same," he said, bending to make sure the knife in his boot was secured. "This place is more dangerous."

"Dan, this place doesn't even have an operating movie theater. How dangerous could it be?" Alana asked, though her fingers lingered on her tactical vest. He nodded to her, and she slipped behind him to pull it on. 

At least _two_ of them were going to be prepared. 

* * *

The tunnel access was completely sealed, so the three of them headed down a flight of stairs onto a nature path. 

“This place must be gorgeous when the fog recedes,” Alana said as they walked, and Daniel grunted in reply. What kinds of monsters would Alana bring? What would Kepler’s demons look like? It was bad enough that he’d have to explain his own monsters… “Daniel?”

“What?” He looked up at Alana and Kepler, both of them stopped in the middle of the trail just behind him. 

“You’ve been doing a rather good job of ignoring Doctor Maxwell,” Kepler said. “She asked when you’d come here before.”

“Oh. No comment,” he replied. 

"Oh, come on," Alana whined. "Why are you being such a stick in the mud? Look at this place! There's an honest-to-God _wishing well_ right there!" 

"The set dressings only mask how bad this place really is," Daniel said, tensing as Alana walked over to the well and looked inside, only relaxing once she was back on the path.

He didn't go look for himself. He knew better than to tempt fate. 

Eventually they got to the end of the path, and Alana pulled on the very locked gate barring their way. "It ends at a graveyard? That's...morbid."

"Well, guess there's no way in, we'll just have to leave," Daniel said brightly, even as Kepler pulled himself up and over the stone wall. "Why would you do that."

Kepler shot him an unimpressed look as he pulled the gate open. "We don't have all day, Mister Jacobi," he snapped. 

"You have no idea how much I wish that was true," Daniel muttered as Kepler turned away.

"Are you _trying_ to piss him off even more than he already is?" Alana whispered as they made their way up and out of the cemetery and into the town. "I love you, Dan, and I don't want to have to learn to like your replacement."

“Look, just...trust me here, ‘Lana. This place isn’t safe and I would kill to _not_ be here,” he whispered back as she linked arms with him.

“So,” she said loudly, changing the subject and catching Kepler’s attention. “What should we do once we’re finished here? There’s a UFO museum back in that one town, uh, Brahams? We could get Mr. Cutter a keychain or something to go with our mission report.”

“Oh, what if we could find chai tea in a UFO shaped tin? Do you think we could use it to bribe our way out of next year’s Christmas party?”

“Holiday party,” Kepler corrected.

“Yeah, Dan. _Holiday_ party. Do you think that’d work?”

“No,” he sighed. “Probably not. One of us could, you know, _literally_ be giving birth and we'd still be expected to attend."

* * *

A couple blocks into the town proper and Daniel was starting to get even antsier. Alana had unlinked their arms shortly after the UFO souvenir discussion, and he’d been fidgeting ever since. The fog was thick and the town was empty. Daniel didn’t like it.

Kepler, it turned out, didn’t like it either. 

“Hold up,” he said, turning to face the two of them. “There are no people here. No cars either.”

“I...don’t hear any animals or birds,” Alana said slowly. “I can’t hear the lake either, and it was windy on our way here.”

“Fog’s moving in,” Daniel added, almost casually as he moved closer to Alana and Kepler. He didn’t want to lose them, even if Kepler was pissed at him.

“You’ve been here before,” Kepler asked. “Is this normal?”

“Depends on your definition of normal,” Daniel muttered, before shaking his head. “No. We should have seen something by now.”

“Wait...Sir, look. Lights.” Alana pointed, and both Daniel and Kepler turned to look.

“Looks like we aren’t alone after all, come on.”

While Kepler and Alana both relaxed at the sight, Daniel felt his hackles rise. The air was heavy, fog thick and warm. It was the same as the last time he’d been in town, but there hadn’t been _lights_ then. As they drew closer, Daniel could see they were torches, six held by six people, and he hoped that neither Kepler nor Alana would bring attention to themselves. A skirmish would only bring other things out into the open and he had a feeling he knew exactly who was approaching.

“The motel, Sir,” Alana said softly, and Kepler slowed to a stop, nodding.

“Good,” he replied, just as softly, before calling out, “Hello there! This sure is some strange weather, isn’t it?”

“...what?” one of the six said, confused, stopping in the middle of the street. “Who are you? How did you get here?”

Alana opened her mouth, but Daniel elbowed her and shook his head. Then _Kepler_ opened his mouth.

“Oh, we’re just passing through, stopped to take a look around town,” he said cheerfully, taking a couple of steps forwards. “You wouldn’t happen to know of any good places to eat?”

“You shouldn’t have stopped here,” a new speaker said. “You should leave before it’s too late.”

“Shut up!” another speaker snapped. “We’ve been _looking_ for new blood, we can use them.”

Kepler stopped. “And what do you mean by that?” he asked, voice turning from that of a jovial tourist to cold-blooded killer.

“You ought to be thankful,” the third person said, lifting something. “You will have a swifter death than you rightly deserve at our hands.”

“DOWN!” Daniel shouted as he recognized what they were holding, dragging Alana to the ground as several _goddamn_ harpoons shot overhead, scrambling for his handgun. By the time he’d pulled it free, Kepler had already fired a handful of shots and most of the people, the _cultists,_ were gone.

“Are you alright, Sir?” Alana asked as they approached him.

“Fine,” he replied as he stood from his kneeling position. “And you?"

"No injuries between us, Sir," Daniel said, squinting into the fog. It almost looked like someone was laying in the middle of the road. "I think you hit one of them."

"I'm fairly certain that I hit more than just one of them," Kepler retorted as he strode towards the downed cultist. "Hello there. Care to answer some questions for me?"

Daniel shivered, and he wasn't sure if it was from fear of being found out, or Kepler's tone of voice. He and Alana approached the downed man, both of them standing at Kepler's shoulder, and he felt his stomach clench. Maybe he'd be lucky, this man wouldn't know—

"Praise God, for Her daughter has returned!" The cultist said, staring at Daniel, awe in his eyes.

"What?" Alana said, and Daniel grabbed her hand. "This is the first time I've ever been here."

"Not you, Heathen, _her_ ," the cultist sneered at Alana before lifting his hand and pointing to Daniel.

He let go of Alana's hand and stepped back, crossing his arms over his chest. The nervous fear curdled in his stomach, but he tamped it down. " _Him,_ thank you very much. Trust me, if I wasn't here for work…"

“Yes, well, you’re here now, Mister Jacobi,” Kepler said, moving so his foot was loosely resting on the cultist’s wounded thigh making the man whine. “Now, why did you attack us like that?”

“We needed blood, for the ritual, but now that she has returned…” he reached out to Daniel, reverence in his eyes. Kepler sighed, and shot him in the head.

“I believe that Mister Jacobi prefers “ _he_ ”,” he said after the fact, before spinning to face Daniel. “Do you care to explain what that was?”

Daniel turned, and he couldn’t be sure because of the fog, but he was pretty sure that the road behind them had fallen to pieces. “That was the Order,” he said, turning back to Kepler. “They— I hear static.”

"Jacobi, if you think I'll let something like that distract me from the issue at hand—"

“I think it’s our phones,” Alana said while Kepler spoke. “The fog—” she cut off with a scream, and Daniel felt himself go flying. 

He slammed into the side of a building, and stared up at the grey sky in a daze. Of course when it rained, it poured. Daniel groaned as he pulled himself up, vision swimming. He could make out what had run into him as it turned towards the corpse. It was a Numb-Body, one of his least favourite nightmares, and the purplish, veined chicken, or _duck_ , shaped monster was heading towards Alana. "Get away from it!" He shouted, motioning to Alana. "It wants the body!"

As Alana moved away, Kepler came and helped him to his feet. If Daniel was lucky, all he'd have would be bruises.

"To the Inn, Doctor," Kepler called, motioning with his head. "Inside and regroup."

* * *

Thankfully the motel office wasn't locked, and Daniel groaned as he sunk into the shitty plastic chair behind the desk and took off his vest. He didn't think anything was broken, but...

"I believe you owe the two of us an explanation," Kepler said, looming over Daniel while Alana locked the door and drew the blinds. 

Anything that _really_ wanted to get at them would just go through the window, but he appreciated the effort.

"Silent Hill— ow, _shit—_ is home to a cult called The Order. They aren't really well known outside the area– Brahams, Shepherds Glen, Ashfield, and Silent Hill– but otherwise they're a bit of a powerhouse. My dad adopted me and got me away from them." He lifted his shirt with a wince, side and abdomen aching. "Bruised all to shit...better than the alternative," he muttered.

"You didn't mention this cult before," Alana said, peering through the blinds. "I can't even see that thing through the fog…"

"And that...creature that attacked you?" Kepler frowned at the extent of the bruising, already starting to color spectacularly, but said nothing regarding his injury. 

"Numb-Body," he replied. "It's, uh...hard to explain."

"Try."

Daniel smoothed his shirt down, and started tapping his fingers on the desktop. His nerves were going to kill him before Kepler or the monsters could. "I couldn't trust you," he finally said.

"You...couldn't trust me?" Kepler said slowly, eyes narrowing.

Daniel snorted, leaning back as he pretended not to see how the Colonel tensed. "You weren't the first strange man to chat me up in a bar, Sir. I had that story about an overbearing, disappointed air force father memorized backwards, forwards, drunk, sober, or stoned, all to confuse whatever bastard decided I needed to return to the fold. For all I knew, you were going to hit me over the head and drag me back by force."

"Did that happen often?" Alana asked, probably trying to lighten things up, but it didn't work. "It...did, didn't it."

"Six times," he said. "And twice it was people _I was dating_." 

"You willingly withheld information vital to our mission," Kepler said, like Daniel didn't know that already.

"I know, trust me I wanted to tell you both. But I still don't know who's safe—"

"Safe?" Kepler drawled, and Daniel refused to shrink.

"For all I knew, Special Projects could have been made up entirely of followers of the Order, and five minutes after mentioning _who_ I am, they'd have me hogtied and in the trunk as they all planned a road trip up north," he said. "Look, I'm sorry, but I needed to keep myself safe."

Himself _and_ Bonnie. Daniel wasn't sure if he'd be able to handle losing a third person to the Order.

Kepler stared down at him, calculating, before moving back from the desk. "Something else to discuss with Mr. Cutter once we're finished here," he said, almost flippantly. 

Daniel bit his tongue to keep from objecting. Maybe later he’d talk Kepler down, but he wasn’t going to try his luck, not then.

“You didn’t explain the thing that ran into you,” Alana said as Daniel put his vest and jacket back on. “Because, I don’t know about you two, but I haven’t seen something like that before.” She seemed like she was holding herself together, but he could hear her voice shaking.

"Numb-Body," Daniel repeated, groaning as he stood. "This place… look, you don't have to believe me right now, but there's something wrong with it. That? That was a monster that this place plucked out of my psyche and dropped onto the street. They like to eat dead bodies, and you go numb if they bite you." He could tell that Kepler didn't believe him, but Alana, at least, looked like she was considering what he was saying. "Or, if you don't believe that, then it was a weird, mutated farm animal."

"...right," Alana said. "Wait, so is that why you're so scared of ducks?" She snickered at the expression on his face. "Sorry, sorry. Anyway, our target was last reported as staying here, right? So maybe his name is in the check-in book."

"Horribly low-tech," Kepler said, picking up the ledger. "A boon for us, however, seeing as I don't think the computer here is in working order."

Daniel looked over at the computer, a horribly rusted, broken looking thing, and nodded. "Not worth the tetanus shot."

"No it isn't." Kepler tossed the book back onto the desk. "Room 106."

As Daniel moved out from behind the desk, his foot hit something. Looking down he saw the keys to the other rooms, and while Kepler's back was turned, he picked up a handful and shoved them in his pocket. Kepler might have thought the mission would be over and done within minutes, but he knew better.

* * *

Outside the fog hadn't cleared, but luckily the Numb-Body had moved on. He hadn't had much in terms of ammunition during his first trek into the town, but he knew that even a regular sized Numb-Body took more bullets than was worth it to kill. 

That didn't mean that Daniel wasn't feeling jumpy as they made their way to 106, and without prompting he and Alana took up position while Kepler knocked on the door. Someone, or something, was rustling around inside, and Alana slammed the door open while Kepler and Daniel rushed in, weapons drawn.

“...Kid?”

Daniel didn't fumble, because he was _better than that_ , but he did gape, staring with wide eyes before turning to Kepler. "This is our tech thief? This is who we were sent after?" He asked, incredulously.

"Douglas Cartland, yes," Kepler replied. "You know him, Mister Jacobi?" Daniel was starting to wonder if Kepler was ever going to say his name without vitriol again.

"Sir, I...can’t pretend to understand your stance on not telling us what we “don't need to know”, but I could have saved us a _lot_ of time if you'd given us his name in advance." Daniel groaned and holstered his gun. "He's been dead for eight years."

"Dead?" Kepler looked at Douglas, eyebrows raised. "He looks rather corporeal to me."

"They got me…" Douglas trailed off, then shrugged. 

"Near Salt Lake," Daniel supplied, and Douglas nodded.

"Right, yeah, Salt Lake. I never really expected to wake up after all that, in Maine of all places! So...I don't know how to prove that I'm, uh, dead."

"Ghosts can typically walk through walls," Alana said, and Douglas swore as he smacked his hand into the wall. 

"Not this one," he said, shaking out his hand. "You could arrest me or shoot me or whatever, but I can pretty much guarantee that you won't be able to get me out of the town. That’s assuming _you_ can get out of the town."

"Is that...a threat?" Kepler leaned forwards and Daniel rolled his eyes.

"I'm pretty sure the road's already blocked off," he said to Douglas. "We already ran into the cult and one of my monsters."

"Shit." The four of them stood in silence for a moment. "Wait so...did the cult bring me back so they could get you in the town?"

Daniel shook his head. "The ones we ran into seemed kind of surprised to see anyone, never mind _me_." 

After a couple of minutes Kepler also holstered his weapon, and motioned for Alana to do so as well. “So this was a wild goose chase, then?”

“Probably. I haven’t done much since waking up besides, uh…” He looked guilty, and Daniel sighed.

“I guess I can’t get mad at you for drinking now, with you being dead and all.” Daniel turned to Kepler. “What now, Sir?” he asked, almost hesitantly.

“We were sent here to retrieve highly sensitive information that you claim hasn’t actually been stolen," Kepler said. "A space to regroup—"

Daniel pulled a handful of keys from his pocket. "Like a motel room?" He asked, almost innocently.

* * *

Kepler and Alana looked around the room with distaste, but Daniel ignored them to fall face first onto one of the beds. He didn't care what anyone said— Jack's Inn had consistently been one of the few safe places in Silent Hill, even if the parking lot outside wasn't.

"Are you sure that's...safe?" Alana asked, and Daniel rolled over and sat up.

"Of everything in Silent Hill, I can assure you whatever bed bugs this place has are not a concern at all," he said.

Kepler was still frowning as he looked around the room, before he shook his head. "We aren't staying. I can...possibly suspend my disbelief and trust when you say that Mr. Cartland is dead, Jacobi, but not that we're...trapped here. Five minutes, then we head back to the car."

Daniel groaned and flopped back onto the bed. Alana sat awkwardly on the single chair, perched on the edge like the less it touched her, the better. Kepler, the bastard, pointedly set an alarm for five minutes. 

Once the alarm rang, Daniel pulled himself up off the bed, and stuck the room key back into his pocket. "A souvenir," he said before Alana or Kepler could comment, and stepped outside. 

* * *

A block into the fog, all three of their phones started to emit the soft sound of static and Daniel tensed up. Neither Kepler nor Alana seemed to notice the sound, though Alana keep shooting him worried glances.

"I'm not crazy," he muttered to her, linking their arms like on the way into town and moving her a little further from the static. 

"You don't believe in aliens, but you believe in ghosts and monsters?" she muttered back, before they both came to a stop behind Kepler. "Sir?"

"This is the way we came," he ground out, motioning to the road, or rather, the _pit_ in front of them. "So how did this happen?"

"Sinkhole?" Alana suggested. "They can form fast and without warning."

"Yeah, but look over there," Daniel pointed down the street to their left, to another road that dropped down into nothing. "Two sinkholes? And without much damage to the buildings?"

"So we backtrack," Kepler said, and pushed past.

After the fifth blocked walkway or collapsed road, Kepler was positively fuming. "Explain," he snapped at Daniel.

"Can we _please_ go back to the motel first?" he asked. "It might take a bit to explain, and I'd rather we _don't_ run into the cult or something else while I'm talking."

* * *

Back in the motel, Daniel sat back on the bed and pulled the top blanket up around his shoulders. Alana was back on the chair, eyes darting between Daniel and Kepler, who was looming dangerously over him.

"What do you want me to start with?" Daniel asked tiredly. "Roads, history, anything?"

" _Explain._ "

He shrugged. "It's...going to be hard to believe, trust be, I know, but please keep any comments about how fake this sounds until the end?” Alana nodded, and Kepler continued to glower. “Silent Hill has always been like this. The people native to the area said it was sacred, and that attracted the Order. They worship a female God, and whether you believe in a higher power, or magic, or anything…the area changed.”

Daniel shrugged. “I knew we were stuck the minute we crossed the city limits, once we ran into the blocked off road. Maybe if it was just you and Alana, it’d be a different story, but… as much as I would rather I wasn’t, I’m from here.”

“And, what, the _town_ wants you back?” Alana asked, and Daniel rolled his head to look at her. “Right, right, sorry.”

“Anyways, seeing that monster, the cult and the Numb-Body...it really hammered it in that we’re stuck until this place lets us go.”

“And how, exactly, do we get this place to let us go?” Kepler asked softly, deadly.

“You asked, about the first time I came here, Alana? I came here because the Cult killed my dad. Other people have come here because they’ve gotten letters from dead family members, had strange dreams, or simply drove into town to use it as a shortcut between point A and point B. For me, I wanted revenge and I wish I could say that I’d gotten it.”

He didn’t say “ _and now I know revenge is pointless, because it ends with a God-Thing killing the person before you can get to them_ ,” but that was more information than Daniel wanted to offer up. 

“But once the person was dead,” Daniel continued, “I was able to leave this place. So, obviously, there’s something this place thinks we need to address. Guilt, revenge, repressed fuckin’ memories…”

“So…” Alana trailed off. “It, what, wants our worst memories?”

“Sure, that works.” Daniel sighed, deflating a bit. “Sir, I know you are probably thinking of disappearing me or something, but you have to understand why I didn’t say anything. As far as Goddard knows, I’m from Wisconsin, from a military family. To Goddard, my dad isn’t fucking _Harry Mason_. Besides...would anyone have believed me if I told them that this was a hell town with a cult that manifested monsters based off of fears and deep-seated issues in your psyche?”

Kepler looked taken aback. “Harry Mason was your father?”

“That’s all you’ve taken out of that?” Daniel replied, incredulous. “But yeah, that first edition I gave you last year wasn’t really _that_ hard to get a hold of for me.”

“Right.” Kepler seemed to mentally shake himself out of whatever surprised state he was in. “Well, Mister Jacobi, I will say that this will take some...time to digest, and since we seemed to be trapped here for the time being…" Kepler shooed Alana away from the chair and took it for himself. “I’ll take the first watch— Jacobi, I’ll wake you in four, then Maxwell. We’ll get moving in the morning, 0700 hours.”

“Sleep in your gear,” Daniel said, before standing and shuffling to the head of the bed. He was either going to sleep like the dead, or not at all.

* * *

It had been forty-five minutes since waking Alana to take the last watch, but Daniel couldn’t sleep. He had slept earlier, but now he couldn’t. It wasn’t because of Douglas, across the parking lot. It wasn’t the monsters that were outside. It wasn’t the cult.

With a loud groan that made Alana chuckle, Daniel rolled, wincing as pain lanced through his side. “Fuckin cramps,” he whispered to himself, before his eyes shot open and he sat up straight.

“Daniel?” Alana asked, and he ignored her as he scrambled out of the bed and into the washroom. 

"No...no, no, no, no," he repeated frantically to himself as he stared into the mirror, shaking like a leaf. He had already _done_ this! He had rejected God, then killed the thing that had come from Claudia! It couldn't be happening, not again.

"—obi! Daniel!" Daniel jumped as Kepler knelt down next to him, slamming back against the bathtub. When had he gotten on the floor? "Doctor Maxwell, _what happened?_ "

"I don't know, Sir. He just jumped up out of bed suddenly and ran into the washroom," Daniel heard Alana say.

"Daniel," Kepler said again, far softer than usual, and Daniel stared in confusion. Wasn't he furious with him? "Daniel, what’s going on? Are we in danger?" Daniel shook his head. "Is it something in the room?" Daniel shook his head. "Is it something we can do anything about?" 

Daniel shook his head.

Kepler sighed, sitting back on his heels. "Right. Can you stand?"

"No," Daniel croaked, before biting back a scream when Kepler stood and scooped him up into his arms without warning. " _Sir_?"

"I feel like this is a conversation better suited to a location that isn't a grungy shoot floor," he said, before dumping Daniel on one of the beds. "Maxwell, no, _Alana_ , help me push the other bed against this one."

"Uh, yessir."

Daniel watched as Alana and Kepler shoved the other bed over, before Kepler claimed up on one side of Daniel and Alana on the other.

"So," Daniel said suddenly, startling Alana. "I didn't...tell you everything. About this place, about, uh, me." He pulled his legs up, like he could make himself smaller, protect himself from what was inside of him. "The Order wants me for more reasons than I said."

Alana and Kepler were silent, watching him, and he wished that he had a beer or something to make talking about this less painful.

"See...the Order's God…" he sighed. "She's real. She's real, and they...they said that She was here, once. Did miraculous things, before passing. They also said that She could be reborn." A deep breath, and he kept going before he started to shake too hard to talk. "The head priestess, well, she figured out how to help God be reborn. It just meant the sacrifice of her daughter, a little girl named Alessa. Now, I don't really know about how Alessa got her...her powers, but Dahlia seemed to take them as a sign that she was "chosen". Dahlia set her on fire, her and other members of the Order set a seven year old girl on fire."

Alana gasped, but Kepler only nodded grimly. Daniel wasn't surprised that the Colonel wasn't phased by what he was describing. 

"But Alessa didn't die. Whatever Dahlia had done, whatever ritual the Order had performed...it had worked. But Alessa didn't want it to, she didn't want to die, she didn't want God. So she did...something, and split her soul."

"You mentioned powers?" Kepler asked quietly, and Daniel half shrugged.

"Fire starting. Telekinesis. That kind of stuff. Anyways...a few days after the fire, on the outskirts of town, a husband and wife find a baby abandoned on the side of the road. They adopted her, named her Cheryl, and she...she was a regular kid. She was happy. Mom, Jodie, died when she was three, but...Harry was great. He'd always been great." He sniffed, and wiped his eyes. "One year, for her seventh birthday, Cheryl asked to go to Silent Hill. Dad said sure, it's a tourist destination, after all, and there's a theme park."

"But?" Alana said.

"But," Daniel echoed. "But whatever Alessa did, splitting her soul, meant that the Order couldn't continue trying to birth God. Not without both halves, not without Alessa and Cheryl first. Alessa knew what Dahlia was doing and by this point she could manipulate the town. She'd had seven years to learn, after all. So she tried to kill dad, him and Cheryl in a car crash before they really got into town, then with _her_ monsters because Harry had nothing for the town to use against him. He was a good man."

Better than Daniel was now. Harry would have been so disappointed to see what he'd become, Daniel just knew it.

"Dahlia put Alessa back together with Cheryl, killing them both and creating _something_ new instead. A monster, an attempt at their God, and Harry killed it. And where Alessa and Cheryl had been was, uh, me. A brand new baby who he took home and raised like I wasn't made out of something that had killed his daughter." Another deep breath, more tears scrubbed away. One of them puts an arm around his shoulders, and it's _Kepler_ , because Alana shifted to hug his arm. "I was seventeen when he was killed. Still in my miniskirt, mascara, mall rat phase. We'd moved more than once because the Order found us– he'd _killed_ someone from the Order who attacked him at home– but...this was the last time. I think he knew it too. I wasn't even home, I was at the mall when everything happened, when Douglas and Claudia showed up."

"Douglas from across the 'lot?" Alana asked and he nodded.

"Mhm. He'd been hired to find me, not knowing why or what the Order was planning. Claudia was a friend of Alessa’s, a year younger than her, and she...she wholeheartedly believed that Alessa wanted God to be born. She told me I'd lead them to paradise with bloodstained hands, that my hatred would help Her grow until She was ready to be born." He paused, then laughed. "Dad wasn't the only Mason to kill God."

"So...what was that, you running into the washroom?" Alana asked, and Daniel buried his head in his arms.

"I thought, you know, I killed God once and I'll never have to deal with that again. Except I've been having cramps ever since we started the drive up here, and I've been so damn angry since you told us about this mission."

"It's happening again," Kepler said slowly.

"I'm fucking pregnant with God, _again_ , and I honestly want to crawl out of my goddamn skin." Daniel started to shake, and Kepler pulled him into a tight hug. Any other time and Daniel would have been shocked and flustered, now he was just tired. "I don’t know what to _do_. Last time I aborted the damn thing by eating a fucking rock out of a necklace Dad'd left me, but what do I do now?"

Alana joined the hug, and that was the last thing Daniel remembered before drifting off, exhausted and scared and surrounded by people he loved.

**Author's Note:**

> So, you might look at this and go "this seems familiar" and that's because it is! Halfway through writing chapter eight of the first version (which is still on here btw as part of the series) I had a Kepler-related epiphany and realized that I needed to rewrite the entire thing. It was a pretty big deal. 
> 
> If you're new to this series, I would recommend waiting before reading the other version, just because things aren't going to happen in the same order anymore and I wouldn't want you to get spoiled :p
> 
> Anyways I hope ya'll enjoy!


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